Etymologically
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Schritt

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Pronunciation

  • [ʃʁɪtʰ], [ʃrɪtʰ][1]

Forms

Schritt m (genitive Schrittes or Schritts, plural Schritte, diminutive Schrittchen n)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German schrit, inherited from Old High German scrit, inherited from Proto-Germanic *skridiz (also reconstructed as *skriþiz), an i-stem noun made in ablaut to the verb schreiten, *skrīþaną.[2][3][1] Related nouns are Middle Low German schrēde, Middle Dutch screde (modern Dutch schrede), Old English scriþe (“course”) and Old Norse skriðr (“gliding or creeping motion”), and it forms the first part of Old Saxon skridskōh (“winged shoe”).[2][3][4] The verb has no clear relatives outside Germanic, and in English its sense passed to English stride.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German scrit is recorded in glosses of the first quarter of the 9th century and in the Tatian.[6][7][8] The Tatian renders Matthew 5:41 as sô uuer sô thih thuinge, thaʒ thû mit imo gêst thûsunt scritô, far mit imo anderê zuênê, “whoever compels you to go a thousand steps with him, go with him two more”.[9]

Semantic evolution

From Middle High German on the word was used as a measure of distance and length, then without a plural: zwei Schritt.[2][10] Figuratively it names a step in an undertaking (den ersten Schritt tun), and fixed phrases are auf Schritt und Tritt “everywhere” and Schritt für Schritt “little by little”.[10] It also means walking as opposed to other gaits, of horses (Stieler) and in Schritt fahren; from the army come im Schritt bleiben and mit jemandem Schritt halten, used figuratively by Kant.[10] Since the 19th century it has also meant the crotch of trousers.[10][9]

Rückschritt dates from the 17th century, and Schrittmacher, a loan translation of English pacemaker, from the end of the 19th, first in cycle racing;[11][2][10] Herzschrittmacher followed in the middle of the 20th.[11][2][10] The word was borrowed into Polish as szryt (1588).[12]

Timeline

  • First quarter of the 9th century – Old High German scrit in glosses.[7]
  • 9th century – thûsunt scritô in the Tatian.[9]
  • Middle High German – Schritt becomes a measure of distance.[2]
  • 1588 – Polish szryt.[12]
  • 17th century – Rückschritt.[11]
  • 19th century – “crotch of trousers”.[10]
  • End of the 19th century – Schrittmacher.[2][11]
  • Mid-20th century – Herzschrittmacher.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A step, the movement of one foot forward: Sie machte einen Schritt zur Seite.[13][1]
  2. A pace as a measure of distance: Das Tor war nur zwanzig Schritt entfernt.[13][1]
  3. A way of walking, gait; a dance step.[13][10]
  4. Walking pace; of a horse, the walk;[13][1] Schritt fahren “to drive at walking speed”.[13][1]
  5. (figurative) A step or measure taken towards a goal: Der nächste Schritt ist ein Testlauf.;[13][1] mit jemandem Schritt halten “to keep up with someone”.[13][1]
  6. The crotch of a pair of trousers, or of the body.[13][1]

Word family

  • Fortschritt
  • Rückschritt
  • Schrittmacher
  • Herzschrittmacher
  • schrittweise
  • Gleichschritt
  • Laufschritt
  • Stechschritt
  • Schrittgeschwindigkeit
  • schreiten

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  3. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  4. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 827
  6. ^ Referenzkorpus Altdeutsch (ReA, DDD-AD 1.0) (2016), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin et al., hdl.handle.net/11022/0000-0003-37E5-D
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 293
  9. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 15, 1754
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 758
  12. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag